Achieving cultural change through organizational justice: The case of stop and search in Scotland
| Author | Megan O’Neill,Kath Murray,Elizabeth Aston |
| DOI | 10.1177/1748895819839751 |
| Published date | 01 February 2021 |
| Date | 01 February 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
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Article
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2021, Vol. 21(1) 40 –56
Achieving cultural change
© The Author(s) 2019
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justice: The case of stop
and search in Scotland
Elizabeth Aston
Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Kath Murray
University of Edinburgh, UK
Megan O’Neill
University of Dundee, UK
Abstract
In recent years, the scale, impact and legality of stop and search in Scotland has been subject to
intense critical scrutiny, leading to major legal and policy reform in 2016. Based on these events,
including an early unsuccessful attempt by Police Scotland to reform the tactic (the ‘Fife Pilot’), this
article presents original theoretical and empirical insights into organizational change in policing.
Building on the theoretical perspectives of Chan and Bradford and Quinton on organizational culture
and justice respectively, the article sets out a dynamic model of organizational justice in policing.
While Scotland has seen significant legislative reform apropos stop and search, we conclude that
real change in police practice and culture will require effective leadership and a strong commitment
to organizational justice. We also suggest how insights from the analysis might be applied to other
jurisdictions and policing fields, with a view to securing more citizen-focused, democratic policing.
Keywords
Cultural change, organizational change, organizational justice, police culture, stop and search
Introduction
This article presents an original theoretical framework of organizational change in polic-
ing. Using the case of stop and search reform in Scotland, the article explains how the
Corresponding author:
Megan O’Neill, School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN, UK.
Email: m.oneill@dundee.ac.uk
Aston et al.
41
model can be used to help police forces to achieve more citizen-focused and socially just
democratic policing. This refers to policing which is orientated towards respecting the
rights of citizens, uses as little force as is necessary, is accountable to governance struc-
tures, is open about its methods and its means for redress and operates in a procedurally
fair way (Bradford and Quinton, 2014; Manning, 2010). Tracing the recent stop and
search reform journey in Scotland, from an under-regulated and unaccountable tactic, to
a closely scrutinized and monitored area of policing, the article examines the complex
interplay between organizational reform in policing and organizational culture. The arti-
cle presents a ‘dynamic model of organizational justice’ that highlights the importance of
leadership and organizational processes, as well as the mechanisms through which cul-
tural change can be achieved (see further below). We argue that Police Scotland is ideally
placed to change the habitus, or cultural knowledge, around stop and search through
organizationally just policies and change management methods. By the same logic, we
also caution that a failure to develop fairer and more consultative leadership approaches
means this opportunity may be missed, resulting in marginal or reluctant change, as seen
in the early policing response to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry recommendations on stop
and search in England and Wales (Loftus, 2009; Shiner, 2010; Souhami, 2014).
Policy background
In 2013 the centralization of Scotland’s eight police forces under the Police and Fire
Reform (Scotland) Act1 brought about a politicization of policing hitherto unseen in
Scotland (Murray and Harkin, 2017). Centralization also coincided with the publication
of research evidence that showed recorded stop search rates in Scotland were around four
times higher than England and Wales, that most searches were undertaken on a non-
statutory ‘consensual’ basis and that police practice disproportionately targeted young
people (Murray, 2014). These findings, coupled with intense political and media interest
in the new police force, prompted a period of sustained challenge and heated debate that
within the space of two years led to major legal and policy reform, including the aboli-
tion of non-statutory search and the introduction of a Code of Practice requiring the
publication and detailed scrutiny of stop and search data. Police Scotland also retrained
every police officer up to and including the rank of Inspector on their use of stop and
search. In this way, Scottish policing experienced a clear reconfiguration of the policing
field (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992) in relation to stop and search: namely the social
space or setting in which police practice is located (see further below). Yet the critical
question remains as to whether reform has been accepted by officers and staff as legiti-
mate and/or necessary. In other words, if reform has changed the occupational culture or
habitus (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992) that encapsulates officers’ individual under-
standings as to ‘how we do things’. This question matters because as documented else-
where (O’Neill et al., 2007), police occupational cultures can undermine reform efforts
if they are not modified sufficiently to view reform as legitimate.
Structure and data
The article is structured as follows. Part one sets out our theoretical framework. Thereafter
the main body of empirical narrative and analysis is presented chronologically. Part two
42
Criminology & Criminal Justice 21(1)
overviews the initial stop and search controversy. Next, part three examines the ‘Fife
Pilot’, an initiative introduced by Police Scotland in early 2015 in response to the unfold-
ing stop and search controversy. While the pilot introduced some elements of good prac-
tice, it neither addressed the key issues – targeting young people, use of non-statutory
tactics and recording errors (O’Neill and Aston, 2018), nor changed the policing field.
Part four outlines events following the Fife Pilot, and shows how major reform was
secured principally via external pressure. The discussion in part five presents original
insights into the pilot (why this was unsuccessful), discusses why change happened and
unpacks the relationship between police reform and occupational culture. Drawing the
findings and analysis together, the concluding section reflects on what is needed to bring
about a shift in occupational culture, what lessons can be learned from the stop and
search journey in Scotland and how these lessons might be applied to similar challenges
in other jurisdictions, as well as other areas of police practice, to achieve democratic
policing. The analysis draws on primary data collected as part of a commissioned mixed-
method evaluation of the Fife Pilot (detailed further in part three) (O’Neill et al., 2015),
and a range of secondary sources, including media reports, policy reports and additional
academic evidence on stop and search practice and reform in Scotland.
Theoretical Framework
Our theoretical framework builds on two previous studies: Chan’s (1997) seminal work
on police culture, and Bradford and Quinton’s (2014) research on organizational justice
(also see Bradford et al., 2014; Myhill and Bradford, 2013). While both make important
individual contributions to understanding organizational change in policing, we argue
that a synthesis model – a dynamic model for organizational justice – can provide further
insights into the change process that accounts for: (a) the role of supervisors and police
leaders in developing and shaping police cultures; and (b) the interactive cultural pro-
cesses through which officers adapt their practices to change. Each text is outlined below,
followed by our own model.
Chan’s Changing Police Culture (1997) examines a failed attempt at addressing insti-
tutionalized racism in the New South Wales Police Service, based on the findings of a
detailed questionnaire of over 300 officers (O’Neill, 2016). Chan argues that much of the
preceding literature on the formation of police culture and its influence on police practice
took a rigid and linear approach. These texts, she suggests, present the historical social
and political forces involved in policing as directly shaping police culture, the latter of
which was usually presented as static and monolithic, and passively incorporated into
police practice. Using a synthesis of the works of Bourdieu (Bourdieu and Wacquant,
1992), Sackmann (1991), Schein (1985) and Shearing and Ericson (1991), Chan instead
argues for a more fluid, non-linear and interactive model that is neither non-deterministic
nor unidirectional. Putting police actors at the centre of a dynamic process, Chan’s model
includes both ‘field’ and ‘habitus’. The field refers to ‘a set of objective, historical rela-
tions between positions anchored in certain forms of power (or capital)’ (Wacquant,
1992: 16). For policing, this includes elements such as the police organization and its
leadership, key political actors, historical events in policing, the wider socio-economic
conditions in which the police work and media scrutiny. These conditions influence
police actors and practice, along with officers’ own cultural knowledge or habitus (see
Aston et al.
43
further below) and experiences. Police actors also influence all three elements: field,
habitus and police practice....
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